Friday, March 24, 2006

Andy Shaw: Blagojevich Couldn't Get it Up

ABC-7 News' Andy Shaw, in his discussion tonight of Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich, and his decision not to debate his primary challenger Edwin Eisendrath [who picked up 30% of the vote after he threw together a helter skelter campaign at the last minute], came up with a pretty good sound bite of his own:

The Governor ran the most cynical campaign I have ever seen and turned off more people than I have ever seen turned off. Here is a guy who says there is no campaign—he is too busy governing to campaign, but he is not too busy to cut fifteen commercials and spend a million and a half dollars on ads. Now, Mr. Testicular Virility could not get it up for one debate or one forum with Mr. Eisendrath—now he is challenging Judy Baar Topinka to ten debates, maybe he had his political Viagra this week.

Andy Shaw, guesting on Chicago Week in Review, March 24, 2006 [I couldn't see whether another panelist, NBC-5 News' Mary Ann Ahern, was blushing, but she doesn't blush easily]. Chicago Week in Review, which airs every Friday night, 7:00 pm to 7:30 pm on Ch. 11 in the Chicago Metro area, will be re-run at mid-night tonight and again at 1:30 am and 4:30 am on Saturday morning.********************************* Blago, although up, so to speak, 47% to 40% in the latest poll over his Republican challenger, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, has now challenged Judy to ten debates, starting next month. That is somewhat of a surprise move by a front-runner, but no more surprising than team Topinka's initial response that it preferred one or two debates, to be held in the Fall [as reported last night by Phil Ponce on Chicago Tonight].

This is kind of like the woman in second place, with 400 yards to go in a mile race, who is trailing by 5 yards-- on seeing the leader stop--respond by stopping, too, instead of trying to pass.

On catching its breath, Team Topinka has now said it will agree to a larger number of debates, but Topinka wants to make sure Rev. and State Senator James Meeks [Independent Democrat from the far South Side of Chicago] is included in the debates.

Rev. Meeks is threatening a third party run over the issue of Blago's unwillingness to raise the state income tax and sales tax by three to six billion dollars, or so, to fund elementary and secondary education, especially in low income areas, at higher levels than the state is currently doing. Rev. Meeks is an African-American leader of the Salem Baptist Church, which is also located on the South Side of Chicago and is similar in size to the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls and also home to the Rolling Stones, when they are On Tour in Chicago.

A run by Meeks would decimate the strongest and most reliable portion of Blago's base, Cook County African-Americans, and likely return the Governorship to Republican hands, where it had been for the quarter of a Century prior to Blagojevich winning it in 2002. **********************************************************************To get an idea of what these debates might look like, let's see what the Topinka and Blagojevich spokesman had to say about each other's candidate:

Calling the letter [from Blagojevich offering 10 debates] "just more political puffery," Topinka campaign spokesman Roger Germann said the treasurer plans to debate but wants to include state Sen. James Meeks, a Chicago pastor who is talking of running for governor as an independent. Germann declined to commit to a timetable or number of debates.

"We're giving serious consideration to doing one debate for every open investigation into the Blagojevich administration," Germann quipped. "The problem is there may not be enough time to do that between now and November."

Scofield [Blagojevich lead campaign spokesman and private lobbyist/consultant] shot back: "Maybe we should do one for every contribution she's [Topinka's] taken from a bank the treasurer does business with."